Screwed
by wencho17
Summary: Dean could have handled losing to AJ because there was no shame in losing to someone who was a better wrestler. But to lose because the guy decided to cheat made his blood boil. He wasn't the only one. A low-blow, a pedigree and three guys screwed out of a title. Suddenly, it seemed the Shield boys had something in common yet again.


**A/N – Just a little something I decided to write after Backlash last night. Enjoy!**

By the time Dean made his way to the backstage area, he wanted to punch something. A wall, a locker, a door. Anything would have temporarily sufficed in that moment until he could get his hands on the thing he really wanted to beat into a hole in the ground. The person who fought dirty and ended his championship reign.

AJ Styles.

That name was poison now, seething like venom off of his tongue.

Dean had gone into his championship match feeling confident as he always did. He knew he was just as good as anybody on that roster and he knew that he had what it took to take on the so-called Phenomenal One and retain his championship. But he also wasn't naïve and while he had played a little bit of mind games with his challenger, Dean was not at all taking the man lightly.

He would have been stupid to have done that. After all, AJ was a champion every single place he had been be it in Japan or in the states or anywhere else he so happened to lace up his boots. He had been world traveled, picking up all different kinds of styles and incorporating them into his own. He was a true wrestler's wrestler and technically speaking, he was almost untouchable. There was a reason why he was considered one of the best in the world.

And there Dean was, never really lauded for a technical style, possessing something that AJ wanted desperately. It was the one championship, the one title that had eluded the man in his very illustrious pro wrestling hall of fame worthy career. It was the WWE championship and Dean knew he was going to have to fight tooth and nail against this guy if he wanted to keep it.

When he stepped in the ring that was exactly what he did.

Dean was a brawler through and through, but he met and matched AJ's moves at every turn. This was only the second time the two had ever locked up, but after a slow start, Dean was able to pick up on AJ's in-ring mentality a little bit and in some cases found himself one step ahead of the guy. The crowd seemed to be a little shocked at that but he wasn't. Dean knew that even if AJ was the better wrestler which there was no denying that fact, that he was the better fighter. He proved that every time he got in the ring with these guys who were more polished, more technically sound.

If he was going to beat AJ, Dean knew what it was going to take. 110 percent with another 20 added on top. And maybe even some more after that. He knew he was going to have to throw everything at the man and if he was ever a guy to come up with a game plan, that's what it would have been.

What Dean failed to plan for however was the level to which AJ would stoop to win. So in that regard maybe he was naïve. Maybe the past two years of him losing matches because the other guy, namely one in particular, decided to cheat to win at almost every turn, hadn't fully sunk in. Either that or maybe Dean thought more of AJ than he had come to think of his most recent long-time dance partner. Regardless, it was that miscalculation that left Dean on the hunt for blood and a rematch.

Screwed. He was screwed. There was no getting around it.

AJ had knocked down the ref and then took advantage of the opportunity it afforded him.

The more Dean thought about it, the more he realized none of this should have surprised him. In addition to the fact that he never seemed to get a chance to get through his matches clean thanks to the guy on the other side of the ring, there was also the element of why someone would need to cheat in the first place. The way Dean saw it, resorting to cheating was coming to the realization that no matter what you did, you wouldn't be able to beat your opponent. That you had thrown everything you had, used every trick in your book but like a rabid dog, the guy just wouldn't stay down. It was admitting that the person staring you down and continuing to get up after each move, each strike, each offensive attack, was just as good as you if not better.

Dean knew that feeling well, knew that look in the other guy's eye because he had often been the one to put it there. Dean may have taken AJ seriously but he knew the feeling wasn't mutual. Like so many people who had challenged him in a ring, Dean knew his opponent was underestimating him and he knew at the end of the day, that and nothing else, would be the guy's downfall.

And had AJ not resorted to a low-blow once he came to that realization, Dean knew he would have been proven exactly right. But instead, it was AJ who was proving something. He was proving that he wasn't as good as he purported himself to be, proving that he didn't have what it took to beat Dean one-on-one in that ring, proving that he was nothing more than a dirty, cheating, conniving, underhanded, duplicitous son of a bitch.

It was about that moment that Dean's fist made contact with the door of his locker, leaving a dent which he knew he'd be made to pay for in the morning. Right now though, he didn't care. He didn't care if he punched every locker in the room until either one of two things happened: either his hand started to feel numb or his mind started to come to terms with the fact that he had lost the title which he had fought so hard to get, in the most aggravating way possible.

He knew the numbness would come first because as far as Dean saw it, he hadn't lost the title but rather had it stolen from him. That's what bothered him the most. Not the fact that he lost, because after all, there was no shame to losing if the guy was a better man or if on that day he fought a better match. He could have handled that. No, it was how he lost and how this was just another in a long line of guys who needed to screw him over in order to get what they wanted.

Speaking of one of those guys, Dean felt his phone vibrate in his pocket and was shocked when he saw the moniker of the man who had just left him a text message.

 _New message: Weasel_

 _Hey Dean, just wanted to let you know I saw your match. AJ's a piece of work. Seriously though, you had that match won and I know you'll have the rematch won too. You're every bit as good as he is in the ring and the fact that he couldn't beat you on his own just proves that. Kind of like some other people who knew they couldn't beat you._

Receiving any sort of contact from Seth Rollins was rare in and of itself but for the message to be complimentary and encouraging, well, that was almost as if hell had frozen over. To be fair though, ever since the brand split and the fact that he didn't have to see Seth's stupid face all of the time, things between the two had gotten slightly better. They were out of each other's orbits and given just how much the hatred in Dean's heart and soul still burned for the man who took away everything from him, absence was proving to be a very, very good thing. But slightly better and the point where they were exchanging pleasantries and pep talks were two entirely different things.

Although, as Dean recalled, Roman had told him that Seth had become somewhat of a different guy ever since his own title opportunity ended in a way that no one could have seen coming. Well, almost no one. Dean had told Seth since day one that Triple H was going to turn his back on him when something better came along and surprise, surprise that was exactly what had happened. And of course, Dean delighted in being right about the whole thing but maybe not as much as he thought he would have. In fact, while he did believe Seth got exactly what was coming to him and that karma was in fact, the world's biggest bitch, Dean did feel a little teeny bit sorry for his former best friend and brother.

Again though, not enough to reach out an olive branch or offer to join forces or anything like that. Just enough that when the shoe was on the other foot, he got it. And given that Seth had now been rightly humbled by the whole thing, he knew the man had gotten it to.

Dean wasn't expecting any apologies though. He wasn't expecting Seth to acknowledge his own cheating ways let alone admit his motivations for doing them were because he knew he couldn't win on his own. Triple H turning on him it seemed, gave Seth back the ability to think for himself and again, while a reunion was the furthest thing on Dean's mind, this Seth was a guy he could actually see getting along with again.

That's when Dean remembered the other guy Triple H screwed out of the Universal title, that being his best friend Roman Reigns. That was one that made him see red too because unlike Seth, Roman hadn't deserved that at all. He hadn't deserved Triple H's ire because he was too stand-up of a guy to shake his hand and join the Authority. He didn't deserve the hoops he was put through to keep his championship just because his conviction was such that he wouldn't back down and wouldn't give in. Dean respected that in a man and he sure as hell respected Roman.

When it came time for his own shot at the title, he was actually relieved that he'd be cashing in on Seth and not Roman. Of course, he would have cashed in on either that much was certain, but getting that measure of revenge on Seth as well as not having to be the one to take the title from Roman was a pretty perfect scenario. Their Battleground triple threat however, that was a bit of a different story.

But again, for as bitter and frustrated Seth was to not get the gold there, Dean knew there was some modicum of respect that had developed among the three, some element of that brotherhood, the first piece of the puzzle perhaps, being put back in its rightful place. That only strengthened when Seth and Roman looked across the ring at one another, a bond created in the fact that they had both been screwed out of the title by the same guy. An enemy of my enemy sort of thing but it was enough to tie them together at least for the time being.

And while Dean's fight wasn't against Triple H or Kevin Owens for that matter, he shared in that bond in a way because in that moment, all three knew what the other was feeling, what the other was going through. They all knew that whatever fair shot of winning a title, one they were each prepared to do on their own, was unjustly taken away. A pedigree, a low-blow, a cheater determined to make a mark. For the first time in a very, very long time, it seemed the brothers may have once again had something in common.

Dean was about to text a response back to Seth when he opened his phone to find he had a Twitter notification. He just sighed. Dean hated social media, hated the fact that being the champion meant the company demanded him to get an account. Maybe now he wouldn't have to use it. That was the one good thing about not having the title. Although, Dean had every intention of that good thing, that little Twitter hiatus, not taking very long at all.

Immediately his fists clenched as the app opened to show a picture of AJ Styles holding the title, Dean's title, over his head. It appeared side-by-side with a picture of Kevin Owens doing the same thing with the Universal Championship and then to really get his blood boiling, a picture of Triple H, Owens and Styles from Wrestlemania 32. The text below read: The future is now! #KevinOwensShow #PhenomenalChampion.

That's when Dean realized the tweet had come from Triple H himself and had been DM'ed directly to himself, Seth and Roman. This was war, clearly and intentionally, and that made Dean even angrier.

Sure, Hunter hadn't been behind his loss the way he was Seth and Roman's, but his glee in delighting in it made him culpable in Dean's mind. Of course the man would be ecstatic. He wanted to not see that belt around Dean's waist even more than he wanted to have people forget about his WCW career and that was saying something. Dean was the last person in the company it seemed, who Triple H wanted with the championship and he had done everything in his power for as long as he had, to ensure that never happened.

Now it was Dean's turn. It was his turn to make sure that Triple H never got to win, whether directly or indirectly again. It didn't matter if it was Plan B, hell it didn't matter if it was C-Z. It was Dean's turn to make sure that none of them came to fruition.

And that started with him getting that title back from the slime ball and having Seth or preferably Roman do the same. The way Dean saw it, Triple H's worst nightmare at this point would be a new era in which none of his so-called guys were on top. It was in Dean's power to do exactly that and he knew it was in Seth and Roman's as well. All they had to do was finish what they started, finish what they should have done years ago when they took out Evolution but failed to take out its kingpin.

So maybe that reunion, however temporary it would be, wasn't the furthest thing from his mind after all.

But first, he had business to attend to. He had a rematch he needed to demand and then win. And this time, there was nothing that was going to stop him from doing exactly that.


End file.
